Handheld medicament delivery devices are well known products and are frequently used for self-medication by patients or users as part of treatment in a large variety of disorders and conditions, for instance insulin injectors used by diabetes patients. From a user's perspective it is desired that the medicament delivery device is both intuitive and easy to handle, particularly in case the patient suffers from reduced gripping strength in which case e.g. a pen-shaped injector may not be very easy to operate since it is sometimes hard to grip and at the same time perform penetration and injection, especially if the device is also manually operated.
WO2006007590A2 and WO2008107813A1 disclose medicament delivery devices where an improved gripping for manually activating a delivery by squeezing a pivot lever, however, each time the lever is squeezed a pre-determined dose of medicament is delivered. A solution where a dose assembly is connected to a squeezing pivot lever is known in WO2004035112A2. However, for manually actuated medicament delivery devices it is neither necessary nor desirable to use a pivot lever since they would be difficult to grip and activate. When the pivot lever is in an activated position, an angle of least 30 degrees between the pivot lever and the longitudinal axis of the device is formed. Such an activated position of the pivot lever means that the individual who is activating the device has to exert at first a force with his/her little finger. This is not so convenient for individuals having dexterity problems.
Also from a manufacturer's point of view it is of course advantageous if the injector is easy to produce at a cost-efficient price and at the same time keep a high quality standard. For various reasons many injectors are disposable devices which is another reason why it is advantageous to be able to keep the prices down so that buyers will not refuse the product because it is too expensive.